"He's late… that idiot. Every alley in this city reeks of foul blood."
The sun was on the verge of disappearing behind the towering horizon, its warm reflections shimmering on the Cloud River where Takeshi stood, staring deeply into it while inhaling the air tainted with the smell of corpses and blood dominating the city. Behind him stood a tall, massive building—the city's central bank.
He turned his head to the right the moment he heard loud footsteps slamming against the ground. It was Koji, running and panting heavily toward him.
"You're late!"
Takeshi said. And Koji truly was late— they had agreed to meet in the evening before sunset, not with it. Koji stood before him, breathing heavily, then wiped the sweat off his forehead and said:
"I'm sorry… a damn huge rat blocked my way."
Takeshi changed the subject.
"So, what do you want to tell me?"
Koji smiled, lifting his gaze toward Takeshi with excitement.
"King Skull Gang!"
Takeshi's eyes widened completely, his fists loosening, his guard dropping, and his ears focused entirely.
"I overheard your conversation yesterday with that thief you caught… about that gang."
Takeshi didn't pay attention to the people around him, and had he done so, he would've recognized Koji's face and maybe understood the reason behind their meeting.
Koji continued after taking a breath:
"But before I tell you what I know… I want to ask why you're looking for information about them."
Takeshi frowned, searching for a convincing answer.
'I shouldn't rush my reply. Orvin told me not to ask normal people like him or Sota about the gang—yet he came to me on his own. What if he really has a connection to them?'
Takeshi stared sharply into Koji's eyes.
"I can't answer you until I know why you want to tell me about that gang."
Koji closed his eyes, smiling with his head slightly lowered.
"I have no escape then… I'm from that gang!"
Takeshi's hands tightened, his eyes widening instinctively, but he controlled himself and suppressed his raging anger, giving Koji room to continue.
"But I'm tired… tired of those filthy scenes!!"
Koji said, recalling what happened every ten days, and imagining what would soon happen again. He continued:
"I want to erase my trace from that gang—"
Takeshi cut him off, doubt filling his voice.
"Then why don't you just leave them?"
Koji slammed the wall beside him, shouting between panting breaths:
"Do you think those lunatics would let us leave without consequence?! Do you think any of us joined for personal gain?!"
He calmed himself, inhaling deeply, then continued:
"Sorry… but most of us joined because of exploitation—"
"Exploitation?" Takeshi asked.
"Yes. Most of us have someone dear suffering from a chronic, deadly disease. To afford the treatment… we joined that gang."
Takeshi lowered his guard, his full focus drawn to Koji's words, unaware of the man watching from within the adjacent alley's shadow.
He was wearing the gang's white cloak, his pale face barely revealing his identity. It was Shido. The moment he saw and heard the conversation, he sank into the surrounding shadows, merging with the ground and disappearing from existence…
Koji clenched his teeth so tightly that blood seeped from his gums as he spoke, hatred filling his heart.
"We're nothing but a group of society's trash and useless villagers good for nothing but stealing. If it were up to me, I'd leave that gang and sell my own organs for my sister… but that gang!!"
***
Years ago, in one of the rural villages near Galeon City, happiness was a trait that never left its people—especially the Rinro family. That cheerful family consisted of the two parents who migrated from a city in eastern Autumnland Orival, and their eldest son Koji and his younger sister Hana, seven years apart.
When Koji turned thirteen, both parents died from a hereditary illness called Shird. Its symptoms appeared late, including:
- Partial limb paralysis.
- Severe redness of the eyes.
- Sudden panic attacks.
The parents reached the edge of doom and fell into it together, leaving their children in another abyss of sorrow and despair.
Despite that, Koji climbed out of the abyss, trying to pull his sister out with him, just to see her small smile. That became his biggest wish.
He reached the age of fifteen, working as a fisherman barely managing to provide daily food. One day, while he was fishing by a small lakeshore, the breeze shifting his worn rural clothes, and the sound of flowing water echoing in his ears—
"Brother! Brother!"
He heard a little girl's excited voice behind him. It was Hana, full of joy and smiles, now eight years old.
"Hana!!"
He shouted before she reached his arms. He held her tightly, forcing back a heavy tear. Whenever he saw that gentle smile, the burden on his shoulder transformed into a warm aura filled with strength and longing.
But the moment Koji's hands touched his sister's, he noticed they were cold as frost. The warm aura vanished, and the tear in his eye hardened into a sharp gaze as he focused on her eyes—deep, dried-blood red.
Moments later, Hana collapsed unconscious. Koji rushed her to their shabby hut, covered her, soaked a cloth in cool clean water, and placed it on her forehead after noticing her body's burning heat.
"Don't take my sister too… please!!"
Begging and praying—that was all Koji could do. He stood in the hut's corner, staring at his ill sister, his eyes nearly cracking dry from the tears he had shed.
"There is a way to save her…"
A deep voice emerged from the doorway. Koji was the only one who heard it, lifting his head and staring with tear-filled eyes at the speaker—a tall, strong man in a white cloak marked with a skull emblem, wearing a white mask shaped like the upper part of a skull.
It was the gang leader, Rasten!
He repeated his words, fixing his sharp gaze on Koji:
"Perhaps you didn't hear me, boy… there is a way to save her."